Assuming the voice command is well established, give the whistle command immediately followed by the voice command until the dog responds to the whistle. The new command needs to precede the old command for the association to take hold.

I use a dual whistle with a pea on one side and pealess on the other. Two tweets on the pea side is Come (but I mostly use the tone on the ecollar so the game is not alerted). One long tweet on the pealess side is Whoa (I plan to overlay the vibrate on the ecollar and use it while hunting). I only use Down when the dog is close enough to hear and see me, mostly associated with waterfowl hunting or putting dog boots on while on the tailgate.

Assuming the voice command is well established, give the whistle command immediately followed by the voice command until the dog responds to the whistle. The new command needs to precede the old command for the association to take hold.

Pea whistles can freeze when its cold. Been using a Fox 40 for years, and it even froze once, so i carry two usually. NBA officials use Fox whistles. No pea,can take all the air you can give it. If you don't have to worry about cold, the double can be good to give the dogs a difference.

Ive run retrievers for 30 years chukar hunting.Use the whistle quite a bit, Never had birds flush wild from a whistle or a shotgun. Pheasants either. car doors, dogs barking , hunters talking yes, but not the whistle.

Sit- one tweet(used for handling and means stop, square up to me and sit)Change direction-two tweetsHere- three tweets

My progression is as follows;-First I establish reliable OB with voice commands.-Second I start with sit. I give sit command followed by the whistle, then sit. In other words I bracket the whistle when I first introduce the concept of a whistle command. Then it is shortened to sit, whistle. When the dog is used to the whistle, they are reversed to whistle, sit. When the dog is sitting before the sit comes it can be omitted.-Third is here, I start by giving the here command to get him coming and quickly follow it up with the whistle. After a week or so I reverse them. When the dog is anticipating the here and starting in on the whistle, here can be omitted.-Fourth is a true whistle sit and ultimately what I am after. With the dog out away from me I will give the sit whistle (one tweet), as soon as he sits I follow it up with the here whistle (three tweets), as soon as he spins around to head my way, I again give the sit (one tweet) so he he is now sitting andfacing me. This is consistently repeated till he anticipates what is coming and squares up to me before sitting. -I start the two whistles to change direction when a young puppy is out running. I simply turn away from the puppy and start walking away and give two tweets. Puppy looks up, sees you leaving and comes that way. Later after basic handling is learned i refine with hand signals.-down, sit, whoa, hide, and heel are all overlayed with hand signals in the same manner for when we need to run silent. Willie

Great timing on this! I picked up DD no.2 last week-end and am determined to go whistle only in the field..By the end of the hunting season I feel like a PTSD victim after listening to guys scream at their dogs...and that includes me. I have one question though? Ever run into problems with more than one person using a whistle and what about running more than one dog?OK two questions..don't post much but really appreciate the people who do regularly..Thanks

Mndraht wrote:Great timing on this! I picked up DD no.2 last week-end and am determined to go whistle only in the field..By the end of the hunting season I feel like a PTSD victim after listening to guys scream at their dogs...and that includes me. I have one question though? Ever run into problems with more than one person using a whistle and what about running more than one dog?OK two questions..don't post much but really appreciate the people who do regularly..Thanks

Go one better, Teach your dog the whistle commands but then overlay the tone on the ecollar and save the whistle for more emergency use is what I do. You will have a silent recall. Could use the vibrate feature to teach another command in the same manner and have two silent ques to handle your dog with. Will make the issue of hunting with a noisy handler less of an issue. Both my TT 550 and Alpha can toggle between dogs and I have trained them both to work to the tone, so I can handle one dog without the other one even being aware of it.

I had my pup on the ground with two different handlers and their very nice EPs this past season. Per the custom, the EPs handlers were "singing" to their dogs, as in hollering with some whistling mixed in. It was the complete opposite of the near 100% silence my pup and I hunt in most of the time. For awhile it was absolutely interrupting my pup's search as he responded and came towards me to see what the commotion was about. He learned to ignore it, based on my body language which was to ignore him and keep hunting in the direction I wanted him to hunt in.

AG, your use of the vibration feature got me thinking. I may try to overlay 1,2 and three with the collar to mimic the meaning of the corresponding whistle command with my current pup. The more I think about that the more I like it. Would still have the whistle for back up. Willie

The best dogs I have ever owned never needed/need whistle commands. All of my dogs have been whistle trained. The best dogs you never needed the whistle to be blown, but 1 or 2 times a year. The best dogs after the age of 2 should hunt with stealth. I pull up to a slough in Dec. and I close the doors with care. No slamming a door. When I turn my dog loose, the last thing I want to have to do is blow a whistle. I believe in hand signals without whistle blowing. Let the dog use its genetics and cooperation. Most days I hunt without blowing my whistle. I know that gives me a tremendous advantage with late season roosters especially.I am in no way saying that whistle commands are not useful. What I am saying is that as the dog learns, swallow the whistle. A good dog will check in with you. If the dog takes off and hunts for himself too much, light him up. He will learn, without noise. The vibrate is a great tool. Better than a whistle.